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Bonds used steroids in 2003, trainer says on secret recording
Slugger's lawyer sees 'another below-the-belt bash'
Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada
San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Barry Bonds was using an "undetectable" performance-enhancing drug during
the 2003 baseball season, his weight trainer claimed in a conversation
that was secretly recorded last year and provided to The Chronicle.
Trainer Greg Anderson, 38, who is Bonds' longtime friend and a defendant
in the BALCO steroids conspiracy case, also said on the recording that he
expected to receive advance warning before the San Francisco Giants
superstar had to submit to a drug test under what was then baseball's new
steroids- testing program.
The recording is the most direct evidence yet that Bonds used performance-
enhancing drugs during his drive to break the storied record for career
home runs. Major League Baseball banned the use of steroids beginning with
the 2003 season. It has long been illegal to use them without a doctor's
prescription.
"The whole thing is, everything that I've been doing at this point, it's
all undetectable," Anderson said on the recording of the drug he was
providing Bonds. "See the stuff I have, we created it, and you can't buy
it anywhere else, can't get it anywhere else, but you can take it the day
of (the test), pee, and it comes up perfect."
There was another reason the trainer was confident that Bonds' drug use
would escape detection: Anderson said he would be tipped off a week or two
before Bonds was subjected to steroid testing.
"It's going to be in either the end of May or beginning of June, right
before the All-Star break, definitely," he was recorded saying. "So after
the All-Star break, f -- , we're like f -- ing clear."
The recording was provided to The Chronicle by a source familiar with
Anderson who asked not to be identified. Two people who know Anderson
listened separately to parts of the recording and identified the voice as
his.
Anderson's lawyer, J. Tony Serra, said Friday that the trainer
"categorically denies" providing banned substances to Bonds, and he called
the recording a "red herring" that doesn't prove otherwise.
After listening to portions of the recording played for him by a Chronicle
reporter, Serra said he was unable to identify the person speaking.
"We sure as hell can't ID it as our client's voice," Serra said.
Bonds' attorney, Michael Rains, lashed out Friday at both the source of
the recording and The Chronicle.
"The way I view this is as simply another below-the-belt bash of Barry
Bonds," Rains said, "which as I understand it is supposedly the product of
what has to be an illegally recorded telephone conversation supposedly
between Greg Anderson and an anonymous criminal.
"The circumstances that surround both the recording and the reporting of
this supposed conversation, while perhaps appropriate fodder for the front
page of the Enquirer, deserve no place in a responsible publication like
The Chronicle and are unworthy of any substantive response other than
scorn and contempt."
In addition to Anderson's voice, the 9-minute, 19-second recording
contains several unidentifiable voices and noises, as well as the sound of
a cell phone ringing. The background conversations can't be made out, and
a few of Anderson's comments are not audible.
Many of the trainer's comments make it clear Bonds is the subject of the
conversation; Anderson described the six-time Most Valuable Player's
unique batting achievements in specific detail, including the "73-home-run
year" in 2001.
Based on Anderson's comments, the recording was made early in the 2003
season, when by Anderson's account Bonds was off to a relatively slow
start, recovering from a minor neck injury, hitting below .300, worrying
about his performance -- and using a performance-enhancing drug.
Bonds' words to MLB.com
Bonds has insisted that he has never used steroids. Last month, he told
MLB.com, the Web site of Major League Baseball, that he had been randomly
selected to submit to steroids testing this year, and he said he welcomed
the chance to prove his achievements were accomplished naturally.
"I'm glad this is finally happening," Bonds told the Web site. "They'll
get the results, and it will clear my name. It'll show that there's
nothing behind what I've been doing this year."
But federal investigators probing an international sports-doping scandal
allegedly centered at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) in
Burlingame have been told repeatedly that Bonds obtained steroids and
other performance-enhancing drugs from the company, The Chronicle has
reported.
The Anderson recording provides further evidence. On it, the trainer said
the undetectable drug he was giving to Bonds also was being used by
unnamed Olympic athletes who had successfully passed multiple steroid
tests.
"It's the same stuff that they went to the Olympics with, and they test
them every f -- ing week at the Olympics, so that's why I know it works,
so that's why I'm not even tripping," Anderson said on the recording. "So,
it's cool."
In February of this year, Anderson and three other men, including BALCO
founder Victor Conte, were indicted on steroid conspiracy charges for
allegedly distributing drugs that included a supposedly undetectable
steroid called "the clear" to stars of baseball, the National Football
League and Olympic track and field. They have pleaded not guilty.
Serra said that because the recording was not provided to defense lawyers
in pretrial discovery in the BALCO case, it is "highly suspect and
inadmissible" as evidence against Anderson. Serra predicted that the tape
ultimately will prove to be "much ado about nothing."
Anderson has been a friend of Bonds since their days playing baseball in
the San Carlos Little League. He owns a personal training business, Get
Big Productions, working with clients at public gyms on the Peninsula,
including one near BALCO. Anderson became Bonds' weight trainer in 1998.
On the recording, Anderson described himself as having 16 years of
experience with steroids, saying he was familiar with the infections and
other medical problems that can arise from injecting the drugs.
'That's the problem'
"People don't know what the f -- they're doing," he said, in one of many
remarks laced with profanity. "That's the problem. No, I've seen all kinds
of ugly s -- . It's just unbelievable."
Federal agents began focusing on Anderson soon after their investigation
of BALCO began in August 2002. An informant told local U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration agents that Anderson was supplying steroids to
baseball players, court records show.
On Sept. 11, 2002, agents on a stakeout tailed Anderson from BALCO to a
Giants game at Pacific Bell Park, where the trainer double-parked in the
players' parking lot and disappeared from the agents' view, court records
show.
In a September 2003 raid on Anderson's Burlingame home, agents found
containers of suspected steroids and human growth hormone, $60,000 cash
and calendars that appeared to note "daily doses of steroids and growth
hormones" given to unnamed elite athletes, according to an affidavit filed
by Internal Revenue Service special agent Jeff Novitzky. During the raid,
Anderson admitted to authorities he had "given steroids to several
professional baseball players," the agent wrote. Attorneys for Anderson
disputed many aspects of Novitzky's account, including the alleged
admission, in court papers filed Oct. 8.
Novitzky wrote in another document that former Giants outfielder Armando
Rios admitted during a phone interview that he had purchased human growth
hormone and testosterone from Anderson.
The recording of Anderson, made in the spring of 2003, begins with the
trainer discussing how athletes sometimes injure themselves injecting
steroids.
"What happens is they put too much in one area and, what it does, it will
actually ball up and puddle and what happens is it actually will eat away
and make an indentation and it's a cyst ... and you have to drain it,"
Anderson said on the recording. "Oh yeah, it's gnarly."
To avoid problems, Anderson said on the recording, he varied the location
of injections. "I move it all over the place," he said. Some people who
ignored that advice developed serious infections.
"I learned that when I first started doing that s -- 16 years ago 'cause
guys were getting some gnarly infections, and it was gross."
From there, Anderson began discussing baseball's 2003 steroid-testing
program, which he indicated he was monitoring on Bonds' behalf.
He said he understood that baseball had tested "25 players random,
supposedly in spring training."
"So those guys have already been tested twice," Anderson said. "They got
tested, and then a week later got tested again. So ... those guys are
pretty much done for the year. They never have to get tested again."
In the next phase, Anderson said, there would be "150 guys tested at
random" at some point prior to the 2003 All-Star break. Anderson said he
presumed Bonds would be among that group, but he expected a heads-up.
"Do we know when they're gonna do it? Oh, I have an idea. See, the lab
that does this stuff is the lab that does -- ," Anderson said on the
recording.
Learning in advance
The rest of the remark is not entirely audible, but Anderson claimed he
had a relationship with the same testing laboratory that was doing
baseball's drug tests. Through that contact, Anderson said on the
recording, he would learn in advance about Bonds' testing date.
"I'll know like probably a week in advance or two weeks in advance before
they're going to do it," Anderson was recorded saying.
Rob Manfred, a Major League Baseball executive vice president who is the
commissioner's point man on the steroids policy, disputed Anderson's claim
during a phone interview Friday.
"With respect to advance notice, given the procedures that were in place,
there is no way that Greg Anderson or Barry Bonds had advance notice of
when he was going to be tested," Manfred said. "I didn't know when he was
going to be tested."
Comprehensive Drug Testing (CDT) of Long Beach was baseball's "third-
party administrator" during the 2003 season, coordinating the collection
of urine specimens and compiling data from the test results. CDT
contracted the actual testing out to New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics.
In an affidavit, agent Novitzky said BALCO sent at least 33 checks to
Quest with the notation "steroids." Novitzky suggested Conte's firm used
the lab for pre-testing to guarantee athletes would pass formal steroid
tests.
A source familiar with the BALCO case said that during last year's raid on
Anderson's home, agents seized documents showing that the trainer also had
sent samples of his clients' blood or urine to Quest, The Chronicle
previously reported. Investigators presumed he was making sure the drugs
he was providing couldn't be detected, according to court documents.
"He was trying to make sure the guys were cycled off the drugs", the
source told The Chronicle.
Quest spokesman Gary Samuels denied that his company performed pre-
testing for clients and said Quest could not have been involved with
Anderson receiving advanced warning about Bonds' test.
"It's a categorical denial that it's even plausible that we could be a
source for this," Samuels said Friday. "We didn't know who was being
tested or when they were being tested or where they were being tested or
when we were getting the specimens."
Samuels said Quest has been notified it will be called as a witness in the
BALCO case. Earlier this year, baseball announced the 2004 season's
steroids testing would be performed by an Olympic-accredited lab in
Montreal.
"You had better check your facts carefully," said Dr. Kim Jasper of CDT,
when told Friday of Anderson's comments on the recording.
In the final portion of the recording, Anderson discussed Bonds' slow
start in the 2003 season.
"What his problem is, he thinks the magic's gone and he doesn't have it
anymore," Anderson said on the recording.
The trainer also claimed intimate knowledge of Bonds' psyche and how it
relates to his on-the-field exploits. At one point, he suggested Bonds
would hit better if he tried to be less accommodating to sportswriters and
fans.
Bonds has "been way too nice," Anderson said on the recording. "Be an --
hole again. Every time he's an -- hole, it f -- ing works. He f -- ing
plays good because he's just being himself."
At the same time, Anderson said he was confident Bonds' hitting would come
around, citing a mini-slump in 2001 that delayed his 500th home run.
"Other than last year and him hitting .370 ... he always starts slow. Even
the 73 home run year, look at how long it took him to get to 500," he said
on the recording.
Slow start in 2003
Bonds did start slowly in 2003, but he went on to hit .341 with 45 home
runs, leading the Giants to the National League West Division title.
Some of Anderson's comments on the recording mirror evidence gathered in
the BALCO investigation.
In a statement to the federal investigators who raided BALCO in September
2003, Conte allegedly said that during the 2003 season he had supplied
Bonds with "the clear" and a testosterone-based cream. Conte allegedly
said that Bonds had used the drugs regularly and that the Giants star was
among 27 elite athletes who had received the drugs, The Chronicle
previously reported. Conte denies making the statement, and last week his
attorneys sought to dismiss the case by arguing that Novitzky had
disregarded the law to pursue a vendetta against Bonds.
Also in September 2003, investigators were told that Bonds and several
other baseball players received "the cream" and "the clear" from Anderson,
The Chronicle has reported. Investigators also were told that Bonds
received human growth hormone, which isn't detectable on drug tests.
"The clear," referred to in some cases as the designer steroid THG, was
taken orally, the government has indicated; human growth hormone is
typically injected.
In testimony last year before the grand jury that handed up indictments in
the BALCO case, 100-meter world-record holder Tim Montgomery quoted Conte
as saying he had provided Bonds with Winstrol, an injectable steroid, The
Chronicle also has reported. Conte denied the allegation.
Anderson's recorded description of baseball's "survey testing" program,
though not entirely accurate, illustrates an understanding of the process
and some of its finer points.
For example, the trainer discussed players being tested twice within a
one-week span, which was part of the agreement between the owners and the
union designed to ensure players wouldn't get penalized for unwittingly
using tainted supplements.
Anderson also noted there would be a certain number of players selected at
random for additional testing; the agreement stated that "up to 240
players, selected at random, may be tested."
Finally, medical experts said steroid users sometimes suffer the sort of
"gnarly" infections and cysts that Anderson described. But they said the
problem isn't the location of the injection, but dirty syringes.
"They're not using clean needles, and of course you get infections," said
Dr. Harrison Pope, a Harvard University psychiatrist and a leading expert
on steroid abuse. Unless the needle is sterile, bacteria is introduced
deep into the steroid user's muscle, and as the infection takes hold, a
pus-filled cyst called an abscess is formed.
"I've seen 20 or 30 guys who have experienced an abscess, and it's been
the result of a dirty needle," he said.
It's unclear what action Major League Baseball could take regarding
alleged drug use by Bonds. Last week, in interviews with Sports
Illustrated and ESPN, New York Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield said that
while visiting Bonds before the 2002 season, he had unwittingly taken
steroids he received from BALCO through Anderson. Manfred of the
commissioner's office told reporters that Major League Baseball was
precluded by its agreement with the Players' Union from taking action on
incidents that occurred more than a year ago.
Asked for comment Friday about Bonds' alleged use of banned drugs, Manfred
told The Chronicle, "... Whether or not he was using an undetectable
performance-enhancing substance, I and the commissioner will have no
comment."
Bonds already holds baseball's record for home runs in a single season,
73, and now, with 703 for his career, he's chasing the most hallowed
record in sports -- Hank Aaron's all-time mark of 755.
The surge toward Aaron was sparked by a late-career power outburst that
coincided with Bonds' relationship with BALCO. That association began not
long after the 2000 season, when Anderson took the Giants outfielder to
meet Conte. In the four years since, Bonds has hit 209 home runs -- or 30
percent of the homers he has smacked in his 19-year career.
[Link]
Drug-test company, baseball: Bonds couldn't have been tipped off
By T.J. QUINN
New York Daily News
19/10/2004
NEW YORK - In a boxy building near the airport in Teterboro, N.J., sits
Quest Diagnostics, a $5 billion business that handles lab tests for
hospitals, private physicians, schools, corporations and, on rare
occasion, sports leagues.
Drug-testing for professional and amateur sports is "less than a decimal
point" of their total business, a spokesman said, but the company has
found itself in the news thanks to that tiny percentage. According to a
San Francisco Chronicle story published Saturday, Barry Bonds' personal
trainer Greg Anderson was recorded as saying that he had a friend on the
inside who could tip off Bonds before a steroid test.
"Do we know when they're gonna do it? Oh, I have an idea. See, the lab
that does this stuff is the lab that does (inaudible)," Anderson
reportedly said on a recording heard by the Chronicle.
Anderson reportedly did not name Quest on the tape, but the lab was pulled
into the case when federal investigators found 33 checks sent from BALCO
to the company, some of which reportedly had "steroids" written on the
memo line. Reports also said that agents seized documents from Anderson's
apartment that showed he had sent urine samples to Quest for testing.
But Quest and Major League Baseball say it is not possible that anyone at
any of Quest's labs could have tipped off Bonds or the San Francisco
Giants, and they say it is unlikely that the California company that
administered the tests, CDT, could have done so. CDT collects the samples
and sends them to Quest for testing.
"Given the way this process is constructed, there is no way anyone could
be tipped in any meaningful way," said Rob Manfred, MLB's senior VP for
business and labor affairs. "The teams don't know the name (of players to
be tested) until the collector gets there. The individual collector, all
he has is numbers (that correspond to players). He doesn't know who the
names are until the day of the test. The day of the test is too late."
It would be possible for a CDT company official to put a name and number
together in advance of the test, but Manfred he did not believe anyone at
CDT had or would do so. "It wouldn't happen," he said. And Anderson had no
documented relationship with CDT.
CDT officials could not be reached for comment Sunday, but Quest and CDT
no longer handle baseball's testing; they were only responsible for the
"survey" portion of baseball's program in 2003. During that season all
players were tested once, and a third of all players were tested again
later in the year. Because more than 5 percent of the test samples were
positive, baseball began a punitive testing program this season. MLB and
the Players Association agreed to move the testing this year to the
Olympic lab in Montreal, which subscribes to World Anti-Doping Association
guidelines.
Quest spokesman Gary Samuels said his company never had the names of
players to connect them to samples. Even when federal agents seized the
samples from Quest's Las Vegas lab earlier this year, they had to bring a
list from CDT before they could connect names to codes, he said.
"We didn't know when we would get (samples) and we didn't know the names
of the donors who gave us the specimens. We didn't know who was being
tested, when or where," Samuels said.
He also disputed the suggestion that Quest knowingly helped Anderson or
BALCO "pre-test" samples, meaning they would screen samples to help
someone avoid detection.
"If we knew what we were getting from BALCO, obviously we would have been
helping athletes cheat and that is something that we just don't do,"
Samuels said. "Moreover, we make our clients sign a letter saying that
they are not engaged in pre-testing, and they're not going to send us
samples that say pre-testing."
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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
